To many on the left, President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration seems harsh and polarizing. But data from the previous administration shows that Trump’s platform is well-warranted.

New data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shows that former President Barack Obama granted permanent lawful residence to nearly nine million migrants. That isn’t counting the migrants who have found shelter in the country illegally, thanks to Obama’s soft stance on immigration.

The numbers are stark evidence that Obama consciously encouraged mass migration to the United States. It’s hard to dispute that immigrants are woven deeply into America’s fabric — the U.S. is a nation of settlers — but who they are and how many there are does matter.

OBAMA WELCOMES MILLIONS OF MIGRANTS

DHS’s data shows that nearly nine million legal immigrants came to the United States under the Obama administration. This is a number nearly equal to the number of unemployed American citizens, Breitbart noted.

Additionally, Obama’s final year in office saw near record numbers of green cards issued.

Obama’s annual inflow fell short of only those of President George H.W. Bush, whose administration saw the windfall of the 1986 Reagan amnesty plan that granted some 5.38 million green cards to foreigners. An average of 1.29 million immigrants per year gained legal status under Bush, compared to 1.05 million per year under Obama.

According to the report, roughly 1.2 million migrants obtained lawful permanent residence in the country in 2016. This number doesn’t account for the roughly 400,000 illegal immigrants who were caught at the border and sent back — and the unknown amount of others who actually made it into the country.

Of the 1.2 million green card recipients in 2016, 238,087 came in through family-sponsored preference — so-called “chain migration.” A much smaller number, 137,893, came in through employment-based preference, and some 160,000 were refugees or those seeking asylum.

THE “DEPORTER IN CHIEF”

The idea that Obama was the “deporter in chief” is a popular leftist myth that exaggerates the former president as an immigration hardliner; it is merely a talking point meant to defuse criticism of his pro-amnesty policies, best exemplified by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which granted quasi-legal status to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants. It would be indeed strange to call the president who created the DACA quasi-amnesty the “deporter in chief.”

On the one hand, DHS stats don’t lie: Obama deported more illegal immigrants than any previous president. But those numbers don’t give the complete picture.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 226,119 immigrants in 2017, less than the roughly 340,000 in the previous fiscal year. ICE chalks up the decrease in deportations to stronger interior enforcement.

Apprehensions started to rebound in the fall, prompting some commentators to wonder if the “Trump Effect” was over. But others say that the uptick was simply the result of the Obama-era catch and release policies remaining in place, under which non-criminal migrants who are apprehended are released from prison until they have to appear in court, which is sometimes months or years later.

Perhaps Obama holds a record for deportations, but it’s worth questioning whether so many deportations would have been necessary had his administration enforced immigration law within the nation’s borders. The Trump administration is clearly doing a better job with interior enforcement, leading to fewer migrants attempting to enter the country illegally in the first place.